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Rosecrans: Santos is a great, surreal note to end on! In the next match, join us for love triangles and tragedy, as Calvin Kasulke (author of 2022 Tournament contender Several People Are Typing) dons his judge’s robes to preside over Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance versus Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.
At the end of the novel, after an emotionally turbulent chain of events, Wilson seems to tie up all loose ends. And yet, the final sentence brings the conclusion into question: Did Cook leave the narrator with a lie? WILSON: Yeah. Well, I think to some extent, that reflects the composition of the book, but it also reflects the way that identity is slippery in life. Our identities are slippery. And, you know, Jeff is a bit of a salesman of the self. How much we should believe his story comes into question, but also how much he believes it himself is a real central question to the book. As a voracious reader of poetry and a nonfiction editor, I always welcome an opportunity where I have to read a novel. My most consistent New Year’s resolution is to read more novels—sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t, but the desire is always there, but novels are long and always have terrible library e-book wait times. It is only when I am faced with “best of!” lists and awards that I realize just how disparate and separate my fiction-reading habits are both from the commercial mainstream and the celebrated literary sphere. This is all to say, after both of my titles arrived, my first impression was Oh, wow, literally never heard of this. Cool! Criticize ideas, not people. Divisiveness can be a result of debates over things we truly care about; err on the side of being generous. Let’s talk and debate and gnash our book-chewing teeth with love and respect for the Rooster community, judges, authors, commentators, and commenters alike.
By Lisa Moore
Rosecrans: As librarians, you must think a lot about categorization, about genre. Can you expand on that? He was 19, and he was driving across the country to visit us,” Wilson says. “His Volkswagen bus broke down, and a couple of drifters helped him fix it in exchange for a ride. They stole the bus and murdered him because they didn’t want a witness to the theft.” Split up into pairs and imagine you find yourself in Jeff and the narrator’s position: happening upon a person from your past. Write a scene about a pivotal moment in one character’s life in the style of Jeff’s story and the narrator’s commentary. Bonus points if you cast doubt on the storyteller in subtle ways. When everyone is finished, take turns sharing with the rest of the group. Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial? WILSON: I've always found that relationship interesting between a rescuer and someone who's rescued. And well over the past 10 years or so, I've been trying to figure out a form for a story about that kind of relationship.
Who was Jeff Cook? He claimed that this was a first telling of his story to anyone, 20 years later after the rescue. Why now? "...he had saved a man's life-had done the ultimate good deed-shouldn't he want to remember it?" Antoine Wilson is the author of the the forthcoming novel Mouth to Mouth, coming in 2022 from Avid Reader Press (Simon & Schuster), and the novels The Interloper and Panorama City, from Other Press and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, respectively. I was in the mood for something different but I didn't expect this short audiobook to be as good as it was! It starts slow, meanders for a while, and then it takes you to a surprise ending. I did not see that one coming! Jeff laughed slightly. His demeanor changed, and I expected him to ask if he should have heard of any of my books. Instead, he asked if I’d ever gone under.Meave: I would’ve been more trepidatious for sure, but probably because so much YA-classed fiction has underwhelmed. Just like lots and lots of adult fiction! Most of which I have, returning to the original question, been too underwhelmed by to bother with a second time. A] taut, compulsive chamber piece of a novel, which you’ll struggle not to rip through in one sitting… Mouth to Mouth is an elegantly told and supremely gripping tale of serendipity and deception—and delivers a brilliant ending that will leave you guessing about everything that came before.” A successful art dealer confesses the story of his rise to a former classmate in an airport bar – a story that begins with his rescue and resuscitation of a drowning man, with whom he will become inextricably linked, to disturbing ends. Sarah is an EMT she over extends herself for everyone, mostly for her friends but it stems from a past she had no control over so she hopes this will change the outcome in her present.
Mouth to Mouth" by Antoine Wilson is a fascinating literary novel. It explores the connection between rescuer and survivor and exposes buried secrets. There were many unanswered questions. Were Jeff and Francis good people? Were they users? Was the narrator truly the first person to hear the story? Were Jeff's recollections embellished based upon an audience? Was our narrator reliable? This thought provoking read is one I highly recommend. But the real heart of Mouth to Mouth is Kimball's painstaking portrait of a family collapsing under the combined weight of guilt, silence, and secrecy. As Neal proceeds with his schemes, he locates the fault lines in a damaged family that has more than its share of dysfunctional characteristics to begin with. As Ellen struggles helplessly against the tidal pull of events, her marriage flounders, her personal and professional lives slide simultaneously out of control, and her distant, incommunicative daughter drifts further and further out of reach. Kimball catches all of this with sympathy and precision, and the result is a powerful, sometimes desolating account of the destruction -- and partial reconstruction -- of a deeply vulnerable family. This, more than anything, gives Mouth to Mouth its emotional and dramatic center, lifting it well above the level of its numerous, less ambitious, competitors. Being both on the Giller longlist and on Obama's list came as a total surprise. I feel deeply moved about the Giller nomination — I am being recognized by my homeland," said Wilson to CBC Books. Wilson made his own cross-country drive years later, to graduate school at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. On the way, he accidentally stopped “in North Platte, the worst possible place, because that’s where Eric had been when he met the drifters.” Antoine Wilson is a Canadian American novelist, editor and short story writer born in Montreal and based in California. Wilson's work has appeared in The Paris Review, StoryQuarterly, Best New American Voices and the Los Angeles Times . His novels include Panorama City and The Interloper.SHAPIRO: Although, it's not like he's Hitler or Stalin. He's kind of a jerk and a bully and a philanderer, but he's not somebody, you know, who commits genocide or something.
Veronica an ER nurse just got her heart broken by her long term girlfriend and lashes out at Sarah who is secretly harboring feelings for her. A few weeks later, an accident, a text and a spa date later; Sarah has that chance to be more to Veronica. Ok that's a good start... How did we go from Sarah over extending herself for two weeks to them been together for months? There's barely any communication between the main characters, the build between them wasn't sufficient and who really leaves someone for wanting to be there for them? This book needed more depth and it just wasn't enough. After the incident, Cook seeks out Arsenault, but it appears that the art dealer has no recollection of the man who saved his life. Rather than letting it go, Cook deepens his involvement in Arsenault’s existence, encroaching on his workspace and social circles. His preoccupation with Arsenault allows Wilson to open a discussion on morality.Cara Malone delivers another fantastic and sweet romance. I fell in love with both women from the start and enjoyed every minute of the ride.
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